September 30, 2008

October Newsletter

Below is our October newsletter (you get to see it a few days early!) You may be receiving one of these in your email or snail mailbox, so pretend like it's the first time you've read it, if so. Ha, ha! Anyway, click below to read the whole thing, or just keep reading if you're already on this full page...October, 2009

Phwew! About a month from now, we’ll be making the (approximately) 30-hour trip from Greenville, SC to Carapegua, Paraguay. We are SOOO excited right now, and really looking forward to what God is arranging for this next phase of life in the Hagerman family. It’s still very humbling to think that He’s allowing us to be a part of the strong call He’s still sending out to His people, to “go into all the world.” We are also humbled that you are along for the ride, partners with us on this journey into the great big world of cross-cultural missions.

We’ve had the privilege the last few months of visiting different churches within South Carolina to share the mission vision. It’s been wonderful to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones. We’re not only traveling around to get prayer and financial supporters, but also to get the word out about the Mission Training Facility we’ll be helping to start in Paraguay. Only God knows at this point, who and where our future students are right now. It’s very possible that some of the youth under our voices at these local churches will feel God’s tugging soon and join us in Paraguay for our first session beginning around May of 2009. We plan to break ground on the Facility in January.

We have been able to spend some time with the Millers, missionaries of the Church of God of Prophecy from Collingwood, Canada, who have been living and working in Paraguay for 13+ years. They are a wonderful family, and we’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with them. Already, they have proven to be an invaluable resource of “been there, done that”, and I can only imagine that they’ll be even more invaluable once we’re living on foreign soil. They are visiting North America right now traveling to churches throughout the southeastern US this month. Thankfully, they will arrive back in Paraguay two days BEFORE we will!!

Some of you have asked about our specific financial goals, so I’ll share a little about that. Our first goal is to raise $10,000 to $12,000 before we leave for our initial set up expenses. We’re currently nowhere near that, but trusting that God will provide for what we need. We are looking into the possibility of building a two bedroom house and furnishing it for around $4000 to $5000. We could add on to it as we have need, one room at a time. We believe that building over renting is a better use of ministry dollars. The remainder would be for purchasing some form of transportation. Unfortunately, something like the little Saturn we’ve gotten used to won’t quite cut it in Carapegua. Many of the roads are still dirt and clay, and when the rains come, we hear it’s quite necessary to have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. We will be able to purchase what we need in the $6000-7000 range. (Imagine that, building a house for less than buying a car!!)

As for our monthly budget, we are hoping to raise $1200 in monthly support. That would provide for our family needs as well as the ministries we are looking to develop. Basically, we are hoping to find 12 local churches, individuals, or groups of people that would be willing to support us at $100.00 per month. Our accountability is to our local church in Greenville, and to each person that chooses to support this ministry. We welcome any questions or inquiries. We will have an open-book policy to all that support this ministry.

Many of you have received a notification card. If you haven’t sent that back to us yet, we would appreciate it if you would get in touch with us to let us know if you’d like to continue to receive this newsletter, if you’d like to be our prayer partner, and if you’d like to be a financial partner. Please keep our enclosed prayer card and post it somewhere you’ll see us daily (maybe the fridge!), because we would definitely appreciate daily prayer.

We are committed 100% to this project, we have purchased our one-way tickets, but we cannot do this alone. We need partners just like you to make this ministry happen and for it to grow. Together we can do it.

Remember that we won’t receive mail through our old mailing address once we fly out on November 6, and that any correspondence will best be through our email (hagerman100@yahoo.com). Any donations should be mailed to our local church, Carolina Heights Christian Fellowship, at 2900 Anderson Road, Greenville, SC 29611. You can keep up with our daily/weekly happenings at www.hagermans.blogspot.com. Thanks again for your encouragement and prayers. May God bless you!